taking phots together prior to ceremony?

Karabella531

hello everyone. thank for taking the time to read my concern & thanks for answering it in advance! my fiance & i live together, so we aren't completely traditional. my photographer offered to take our photos prior to the ceremony so we can attend our cocktail hour. the only problem is, i'm not completely sold! i'm a bit superstitious so seeing him before the ceremony make me wonder about all the bad luck involved. but on the other end, i think seeing him before the ceremony will allow us to take pictures together to free up time at our cocktail hr. & it will calm me down a lot before walking down the aisle. just seeing him prior will calm me down!! so, what are you all doing? also, we are getting married at the place where our reception is, & ceremony is from 6-6:30, then the receiving line with the cocktail hr. starting at 7pm.
thoughts & ideas please!

aerinpegadrak

If the ceremony and reception are all in the same venue, I think that you should very strongly consider doing the photos beforehand, because having to leave to go somewhere to take pictures and then come back honestly doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

We're doing a two-hour photo tour before the ceremony with our wedding party.  It's going to be a lot of fun, and we definitely couldn't do that if we waited until later.

tracy_k

It's a personal decision... some folks really like the tradition of not seeing the groom before the ceremony and want to keep it that way.

For me, I really liked the idea of doing a private "first look" with just us and our photographer before the ceremony... and it's actually one of my very favorite puictures from the whole day.

Plus, it cut our picture time in half... more time to mingle with guests!

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

We're doing pictures at a special location (we aren't doing e-pics, so it's important to us) and we have no qualms about seeing each other beforehand. Plus, most of our guests are from OOT and we'd rather spend as much time with them as possible.

bbyckes

At first I had the same reservations as you regarding having him see me prior to the ceremony.  Our ceremony and reception are at the same place and logistically it just makes sense.  But, I think our "first look" will be special regardless of when and where we first see each other.  Do what works best for the two of you.

FutureMrsMcDaniel

I wanted to have a first look/take pictures before the ceremony.  But FI seemed pretty disappointed when I asked him how he felt.  He says he wants to see me walking down the aisle and be really surprised.  So I am appeasing him and we are going the traditional route and having our first look as I am walking down the aisle and doing photos after the ceremony.

My photographer said he is very efficient at taking the formal shots and that taking as many photos (bride and family, groom and family, etc) before the ceremony and saving photos with the bride and groom together for after the ceremony will make it run a lot smoother.

Also (sorry this is long) my photographer (and minister) both told me to put together a list of the shots I wanted so it goes quicker.  My minister was married last year and said, in his opinion, just forgoing formal shots with extended family is good thing.  He said we won't need formal shots of ourselves with random family members (beyond parents and gparents) and informal shots can be taken of extended family having fun with the bride and groom during the reception.

fallbride1109

We did the reveal beforehand and we are so glad we did.  The stress just melted away and we enjoyed the ceremony and everything so much more.  Plus I was afraid my husband would feel self conscious doing a big reaction in front of a lot of people but this way he was able to react fully and we got great pictures of it (which are in my married bio).  I always recommend it for this and other reasons, now that I've done it myself, but it's a personal choice.

Karabella531

Thanks everyone for your positive stories! I really appreciate you all giving me your advice. My fiance & I are pretty sure we're going to take pictures before hand. We both have a lot of people coming in from out of town & we want to spend as much time with them as possible. Plus, I've always loved cocktail hour! It's warming to read that others feel the same way. When I told my mother she said she'd never heard of that. Now I can show her this page, and tell her I'm not alone. Plus, we live together, so we're already breaking tradition!!
I'll keep you all posted & what we decide to do, but I'm pretty sure we're going to take pictures before hand! Thanks again!!

ellen73

We jusst decided this past week to do the pictures before the ceremony as well!  There are a few different reasons we decided to do this.  First- we met with the priest that is doing our marriage prep for the last time last week.   He suggested that we greet our guests as they enter the church.  At first we thought this was crazy,  but his reasoning began to grow on us during the week.   He said that by greeting everyone on their way into church- we get to enjoy the 20 minutes before the ceremony/mass instead of getting nervous.  Then we can also set the tone of welcoming everyone to OUR wedding- and have fun and enjoy every minute of it.   The more we thought about this, the more we liked it.   My fiance had been against seeing me prior to me walking down the wedding,  but what won out was the fact that we would be more relaxed.   And since we were going to see each other before the ceremony-  why not do pictures before as well   That would free up time after the wedding and we would just be able to go to the reception and not really miss any of it.

And an added bonus, we would be able to take pictures in better locations (Rock & Roll Hall of fame!!) and like a previous poster said, enjoy more of the day, together!